Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3001 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg, where, while recovering from (man) flu yesterday, I enjoyed watching Blues vs. Ospreys in the oval ball game, only marred by transplanted members of the BBC commentary team, and Delia Smith’s Canaries securing promotion to the Premier League in the round ball game

Today, with the start of the fourth thousand of ST puzzles, I will very quietly endorse the comment CS made in her review of ST 2999 on Thursday, Dada continuing to show us some benevolence with a higher than usual number of anagrams, still with some unusual indicators, two lurkers (one reversed), and one homophone, in a symmetric 32 clues.

Candidates for favourite – 1a, 11a, 16d, and 22d.

Don’t forget to follow BD’s instructions in red at the bottom of the hints!

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Some hints follow:

Across

1a How to make a hole in finger (5)
Written as (3,2), how to make a hole (in the ground).

9a Wine lover three sheets to the wind, wild beast (9)
An anagram (three sheets to the wind – first unusual indicator) of WINE LOVER.

12a Looking retrospectively, some ignore talent in the future (5,2)
The reverse lurker (looking retrospectively, some) found in the rest of the clue.

13a Tall and spindly: describing bunch of hoodlums arguably? (6)
Take note of the ‘arguably?’ – pronounced slightly differently to the answer, how one could describe a bunch of hoodlums (if that was a true pronunciation, which I don’t think it is).

18a Shot at close distance, stray being caught — animal kept as pet? (8)
A (3,2) shot at close distance, in the game ruled over by the R&A, containing (being caught) a synonym of stray.

23a Slight delay at the centre, mailer claims (7)
A synonym of mailer containing (claims) the middle letter (at the centre) of deLay.

26a Reportedly wreck lift (5)
The homophone (reportedly) of a synonym of wreck.

25d Welsh lake consuming small wood (5)
The English name of the illustrated Welsh lake containing (consuming) the single letter for small.

The unhinted ‘forward’ lurker is 10a.

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Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25th, 1917. Here she is in Melbourne, Australia in 1960 with, what was for her, a recently recorded song:

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29 responses to “ST 3001 (Hints)”

Enjoyable , tricky and clever offering today with some excellent clues and a couple of oldies .
Difficult to pick one favourite but will single out IA for producing the biggest smile .
Thanks to everyone

Usual tricky Sunday but doable with perseverance.
Struggling with explaining 22d, the organ stops are puzzling me.
Learnt a bit of geography in 25d which i have never heard of before.
Bit more enjoyable than the usual Sunday slog.
Thx for the hints
****/**

2.5*/3.5*. I found this very enjoyable and, in places, quite challenging. I’m even prepared not to complain about the vagueness of the girl in 3d because the surface of the clue is so good. The Welsh lake in 25d was new to me.

11a was my favourite.

Many thanks to Dada and to Senf, particularly for the parsing of 7d which completely eluded me.

1a raised a good laugh with which to start this unusually enjoyable Sunday challenge and in the end it became Fav. Claims in 23d a new one on me so that was a bung-in. Isn’t 3d girl a bit recherché in UK? Thank yous to whomever is Mysteron today and also to Senf.

A must enjoyable Sunday puzzle with my only reservation being about 13a which definitely earned an ‘umm’.

Took me an unbelievable length of time to register the ‘white dress’ in 5d so that gets a place on the podium along with 1a for its humour. My favourite and gold star winner was 16d although I much prefer brandy!

Thanks to Dada and to Senf for a good set of hints. Ms Fitzgerald certainly enjoyed a long career.

Another fine Sunday thanks to Dada and Senf. I needed the hints for the final few in the NE. 4a had several possibilities until the hint pointed me in the right direction. The lady in 3d is more popular in crosswords and encountered much less often in the real world. Memo to self avoid 27a especially as it is very windy here at the moment🚶‍♂️💭

This had everything in it for me that was a cracker of a puzzle…. made me think, was not over too quickly neither blinded me out . Three cheers Dada!
3*/4.5*
Many thanks to D & Senf for review & hints.

***/***. An enjoyable puzzle with some tricky bits. The welsh lake came to mind immediately as when I was a young boy we used to stop here for a cup of tea on the way to Tenby. That’s about 60 years ago. My favourite was 1a. Thanks to Dada and Senf.

After reading the favorable comments of last Sunday’s Dada, I decided to give this a shot. I did solve it but with some difficulty.
My problem with Dada is how convoluted the answers are, it’s not just lateral thinking, you have to stand on your head.
There were many that were great fun, 1a for instance, and others that were so clever, 11a and 18a, but others really made my head spin, 22d e.g.
I knew the Welsh lake and the pulse, so no problems there.
So, thank you Dada for my Sunday enjoyment, please don’t take that as a licence to return to your earlier ways. Thank you Senf for unravelling some of my answers for me.